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Abraham Lincoln last words Holy Land
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Likely last words of Abraham Lincoln : “…no city on earth…”

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the next morning at approximately 7:22 a.m. Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.

The attack came just five days after the end of the American Civil War.

Two Jerusalems

A strong case can be made, based on the “Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln” (kept at the Illinois State Historical Library), a manuscript Noyes W. Miner, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Springfield, Illinois, who wrote of his conversations with Mary Todd Lincoln in 1882, and several other references, that these were Abraham Lincoln’s last words:

“We will visit the Holy Land, and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no city on earth I so much desire to see as Jerusalem.”

These are the words that follow in the manuscript:
“and with that word half spoken on his tongue, the bullet from the pistol of the assassin’s entered his brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the Angels to the New Jerusalem & above.”

Abraham Lincoln last words Holy Land

Lincoln’s last words about the Holy Land may be up for debate. However, his words of appreciation for the Holy Bible are not, and we made a shirt based on them:

https://ourlostfounding.com/product/abraham-lincoln-bible-this-great-book/

Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage

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Washington Monument Dedicated
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The Washington Monument is Dedicated

On this day in 1885, the Washington Monument is formally dedicated. It was, of course, built for military and political hero, America’s first president George Washington.

Appropriately, the cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848, and construction halted during the Civil War.

Then, on December 6th, 1884, a nine-inch pyramid of cast aluminum is placed atop the Washington Monument, and thus completed construction. That aluminum pyramid was the largest piece of aluminum in the world at the time it was cast.

Laus Deo

All four faces of the aluminum apex bear inscriptions in Snell Roundhand. Among them, on the east side, facing the rising sun is “Laus Deo,” which is Latin for Praise be to God. Although weather and and ill-placed lightning rod base have corroded the letters beyond legibility, the significance of the phrase endures.

Finally, in 1888 the monument opened to the public. This marble obelisk, at 555′ 5 1/8″ was the tallest structure in the world when completed. It remains today, by law, the tallest building in Washington, D.C.

A fitting monument indeed for the Father of Our Country.

Washington Monument Dedicated

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US Capitol Cornerstone Ceremony 1793
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Washington, D.C. : Capital and Capitol Cornerstones

On this day in 1790, Congress declares a site on the Potomac River to be the nation’s new permanent capital. We know it as Washington, D.C. Originally, George Washington selected the site.

Then, in 1793, George Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol building. An engraved silver plate commemorates the occasion with this inscription:

“This South East corner Stone, of the Capitol of the United States of America in the City of Washington, was laid on the 18th day of September 1793, in the thirteenth year of American Independence, in the first year of the second term of the Presidency of George Washington, whose virtues in the civil administration of his country have been as conspicuous and beneficial, as his Military valor and prudence have been useful in establishing her liberties, and in the year of Masonry 5793, by the Grand Lodge of Maryland, several Lodges under its jurisdiction, and Lodge No. 22, from Alexandria, Virginia.”

Foundational

“The year of Masonry 5793” is equivalent to the Gregorian year plus 4,000 because the ceremonial Masonic dating system of A.L., Anno Lucis, Latin for ‘year of light,’ like Anno Mundi, coincides with the estimated year of creation (around 4,000 B.C). Of course, the biblical account in Genesis 1:3 states: “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

Also, the ceremonial foundation stone of the National Cathedral consists of a small stone from a field next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem set into a slab of American granite. That church that is believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.

Capitol Cornerstone Ceremony 1793, Washington

 

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What hath God wrought? The first telegraphic message
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“What hath God wrought?” Morse code and the first telegraphic message

On this day in 1844, Samuel Finley Breese (F.B.) Morse dispatches the first ever telegraphic message over an experimental line running from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. Telegrams forever changed our national communication system.

Morse had spent the previous 12 years developing a telegraph instrument and composing Morse code.

That iconic, timeless first message was “What hath God wrought?”

Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of Morse’s old college friend, Henry L. Ellsworth, the Commissioner of Patents, suggested the phrase from the Bible, Numbers 23:23.

Now it shall be said…

Here is some more context of that Bible verse:

21b The LORD their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’
24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.

 

What hath God wrought? The first telegraphic message with Morse code

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